A week before Mother’s Day 2018, Mike and Deb Schuring welcomed a foster child into their home.

But this child holds special significance for the Schurings; the 2-month old is their 100th foster child. Officials with the Iowa Department of Human Services say 100 is a milestone to reach for foster parents. Most typically care for one child at a time, with the average caring for seven children during their time as foster parents.

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For Mike and Deb, their reasons for fostering children are personal.

“I understand the despair of those who can’t have babies,” Deb told the Des Moines Register.

The two lost their oldest children, Andrea and David, when they were just a few days old.

For the last 23 years, Mike and Deb, and their two younger children, Alex and Sarah, have helped to raise dozens of other children. The foster children are never typically with them for very long; 71 percent of the children they take in have been reunited with their biological families. According to The Register, it’s one of the highest rates in the area.

There have been financial and physical costs to fostering all those children, but Mike and Deb say it was all worth it.

“We kept feeling we are supposed to be doing this,” Deb said.

“We have people say that foster parents are providing care for financial gain,” said Kaci O’Day-Goldstein of Four Oaks Foster and Adoptive Family Connection. “A baby is 24-7 care. That’s 67 cents an hour. It’s like saying someone got a divorce to collect child support.”

Despite their love for helping children in need Mike and Deb, now 60 and 57 respectively, admit they must start slowing down. With a 2-year-old grandson to spoil, Deb says she wants to spend as much time with him as possible.

Even though they are slowing down now, Mike and Deb still take comfort in the role they played in caring for children.